Mission Hills Playground

My toddler and I are on a fun mission to find the perfect park! Our criteria includes a safe neighborhood, plenty of benches, toddler swings, restrooms, and a sense of privacy to feed my son. This park hits almost all of our criteria! It has all of the above except for the toddler swings. Not an end-all for us because, honestly, my toddler mainly just collects rocks and sticks the whole time and has a blast doing so. This park feels very safe, which is the biggest pro! Definitely high on our list of parks.

This is my new favorite playground in the area. The Mission Hills Playground it located behind the Mission Hills City Hall (accessible from Mission Drive, between Tomahawk and 63rd Street) sits secluded, surrounded by verdant trees that shield it from the road. The playground equipment is suitable for children of various ages, including a rock climbing wall, monkey bars, slides, a fireman's pole and other such features. For my preschool children, the monkey bars are too high to reach, but they are able to enjoy themselves with all of the other attractions. The especially love to climb on the twisted green curve structure, the likes of which I have never seen on another playground, and to go down the steep slides. The park feels very safe due to both its isolation and the regular comings and goings of police officers into the City Hall building and parked in the lot. (Anyone who has ever driven up and down 63rd Street in this neighborhood knows well that the Mission Hills police officers like to catch speeding motorists by hiding on Mission Drive and other such small residential roads)There are three benches surrounding the playground. Usually one or two of the is in the shade at any given hour. Although it is impossible to see the entire playground from any one of the benches, the area is such that one can sit and watch his or her children playing fairly well from these seats. There is also a picnic table located off of the parking lot, near the outbuilding. Perhaps the best feature of this park is the public restrooms located in a small outbuilding off of the parking lot. As those with potty trained young children know, the need for a child to relieve himself often comes suddenly and most urgently, so it is delightful to have a clean facility on site. It is one spacious stall (with plantation shutters on the inside window, no less--swanky!), and it is clean. It remains open during daytime hours. Rumors suggest that a brick walkway to it from the playground may be added in the future.